[C19fan]

So how does Jesus invoking Genesis in order the reach a Jewish audience familiar with the text some endorsement of Young Earth Creationists? Jesus was invoking Genesis to teach about divorce not some scientific statement that the earth was 6,000 years old.

[schaef21]

***Jesus was invoking Genesis to teach about divorce not some scientific statement that the earth was 6,000 years old.***

Nevertheless, Jesus said male and female were created “
from the beginning of the creation”. You can’t get around that.

[hecticskeptic]

Jesus was invoking Genesis to teach about divorce not some scientific statement that the earth was 6,000 years old.

Sure… but the Bible is a cohesive book which all ties together in a seamless and flawlessly accurate way. While a statement on ‘science’ might not have been the objective, there is nothing wrong with using the science implications of the statement for that purpose.]

[Resettozero]

So how does Jesus invoking Genesis in order the reach a Jewish audience familiar with the text some endorsement of Young Earth Creationists? Jesus was invoking Genesis to teach about divorce not some scientific statement that the earth was 6,000 years old.

At first reading, your point appears valid. But upon reflection, if His statement about Adam and Eve (male and female) is true, and it is, it follows that so is the Creation detailed in Genesis.

You bring up Jesus' Jewish audience and I am reminded that Jesus not only is Jewish by human reckoning, so were ALL of his disciples and members of His Church that He founded upon Himself, the Rock of our salvation.

Not many gentiles were among early members of His Church (although at least one or two were fed with crumbs from His table) until He asked Paul why he was kicking against the goads.

BTW, it was Paul, spending a good deal of time in Rome, who is known as a principal Apostle to the gentiles, not Peter or James who remained in the Jerusalem area for the most part, ministering to the Jews.

[Springfield Reformer]

It’s true that Jesus’ teaching in this passage was focused on divorce. However, to make His case against divorce, He presents His Jewish audience with a truth claim grounded in divine revelation that they would be obligated as Jews to accept. His truth claim was that from the beginning of creation, the formation of a monogamous, heterosexual human relationship was supposed to be permanent. If it wasn’t always this way, from the beginning of creation, His claim would be false. If His teaching was false, He could hardly be the Son of God, and we would have no basis for accepting any of His other truth claims, or those made about Him by His apostles, such as John’s claim that Jesus was in fact the Creator. If, under the New Testament narrative, not even the Creator knows what really happened in the timing of creation (God forbid!), then the entire record becomes untrustworthy and we are still all lost sinners.

So it comes down to this. If Jesus says one thing and Darwin or Hawking or Dawkins says something to contradict it, you have to decide where your starting point is in resolving the conflict. For me, it’s a no-brainer. Jesus was there. He created it. So He knows firsthand how it happened, and what is the most truthful way to talk about it. Everybody else just has to catch up to Him if they want to get at the truth.

Peace,

SR

[ravenwolf]

Jesus was invoking Genesis to teach about divorce not some scientific statement that the earth was 6,000 years old.

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True, it has nothing to do with the age of earth.